‘Shifting Vedanta-Foxconn project to Dholera will harm country,’ says Maha Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant

The Congress party on Thursday alleged that the Vedanta Foxconn project has gone to Dholera under pressure from the central government despite the earlier Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government’s offer for a better package than Gujarat. “Since Dholera is an inconvenient place, many companies including I. S.

M. C. Digital which proposed manufacturing semiconductors just like Vedanta Foxconn have chosen to withdraw from the same place,” said Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee General Secretary Sachin Sawant.

He said that moving Vedanta Foxconn Semiconductor Project to Dholera will not only harm Maharashtra but also the country. “According to the internal report of Vedanta Company, Talegaon in Maharashtra was the suitable place for this semiconductor project. A comparative study of both Talegaon and Dholera was conducted and Dholera was given less preference citing various reasons like lack of water supply, skilled labour, electronics manufacturing ecosystem, absence of supply chain vendors and secondary manufacturers and also marshy land.

Even though Maharashtra had offered many concessions including more capital subsidy than Gujarat, the decision to move the said project to Dholera has been made only under the pressure of the central government,” said Sawant. When Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he announced many non-feasible projects in the state and wasted thousands of crores of taxpayer’s money, the Congress leader added. “Recently, three companies applied when the proposal was invited for semiconductor manufacturing with an estimated investment of $10 billion in the country.

One of them, I. S. M.

C. Digital (ISMC Digital), was supposed to be set at Dholera. But it has now fled from Dholera due to the lack of facilities and water availability.

Interestingly, the Gujarat government had entered into a memorandum of understanding with this company,” added Sawant. “Jiophone, a joint project of Google and Reliance, left Dholera and moved to Tirupati. Earlier, Lockheed Martin Corporation withdrew from the solar battery project.

Hindustan Construction Company had entered into an MoU to build a waterfront city worth Rs 40,000 crore at Dholera. But after paying some money for the place, it withdrew,” Sawant said. Lashing at the Shinde-Fadnavis government for losing the project, the Congress leader said it would have provided employment to Maharashtra and income to the country.

“There is a possibility now that the project would be stalled for a long time due to the stubborn attitude of the central government. Just like Dholera, the Gift City project was also stalled. International Financial Services Centre which was to come to Maharashtra was moved there as soon as the Modi government came to power.

The Financial Centre would have brought a huge investment to Maharashtra benefitting all. But the central government did not allow it to happen,” he claimed. When Narendra Modi was the chief minister, the Gujarat government forced the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation to take Rs 10,000 crore worth of bonds, showing that it had found gas reserves but no gas was found ultimately and the company became debt-ridden.

ONGC was forced to buy GSPC by the Modi government, he said. PM Modi has claimed to have promised Maharashtra a bigger project than Foxconn but the state does not need Narendra Modi’s grace for such a big project, Sawant said. “Maharashtra has always remained number one in the field of industry on its own merits.

It is unfortunate that BJP leaders are weakening the state to fulfil Modi’s dream of making Gujarat successful by snatching projects from Maharashtra,” he added. Shiv Sena says Vedanta-Foxconn going to Gujarat is attack on ‘Maharashtra’s prestige’.